How I Became a Baha’i by Dan Himes
Becoming a Baha’i – It Just Makes Sense!
As I sit here thinking back over my 60 years as a Baha’i – my declaration took place August 18, 1962 – I wonder how did it happen so easily! I wasn’t searching, at least not consciously, and I wasn’t feeling as though something was missing in my life. So, upon reflection it is clear to me that it has been the environment that I grew up in that pointed me in that direction.
Let me give you some of that context.
I grew up in Davenport Iowa. My dad became an instructor at the Palmer College of Chiropractic and rose in the college administration becoming Dean of the clinic in the 1950’s. My mother also had deep connections to Chiropractic. Her parents had attended Palmer very early in the 20th century – before 1920.
In the latter half of the 1950’s I remember discovering that my mother’s sister, my Aunt Ethel, had decided to become a Chiropractor and had been attending Palmer. What was intriguing was that she and Grandma were living there at the college. They were living in an apartment that was part of the college library, on the third floor of one of the main buildings, and being librarians for the college.
It had to be in 1956 or 1957 that, on a visit to Grandma and Aunt Ethel, I learned that they had what I then called a “weird, off-beat” religion! But I was intrigued. So, I wrote a small paper as part of my schoolwork about this religion – the Baha’i Faith! The truth is, I hardly even remember writing this paper and there was no follow-up at that time that I was aware of. But I wasn’t aware of everything going on around me!
Fast forward now, five or six years, to the summer of 1962. I had to find work to help put myself through college, but I was unsuccessful in the Quad City area. In talking with my folks I learned that my Dad’s brother, my uncle Ralph, was a shop foreman at a Johnson Motors plant on the lakeshore in Waukegan, Illinois. At that time Johnson Motors was the maker of outboard motors and was located on the north shore of lake Michigan, in Waukegan. That turned out to be very convenient because by that time my Aunt Ethel had finished her studies at Palmer and she, and Grandma had moved back to what I regarded as a family home in Waukegan, at 420 4th Street. Not very far in from the lakefront.
I’ve always been an avid reader and with all the Baha’i influence in that house, I began to read a number of books, Baha’i books among them. One of the first was “Baha’u’llah and the New Era”! That was when I began to realize that this finally made sense of the various religious ‘teachings’ I was familiar with! I also read “Thief in the Night” by William Sears. I had always been intrigued by the concept of the return of Christ and here was a logical, well documented explanation of what that concept meant. By this time I was really interested, but there were several more surprises in store for me.
At this time my Grandmother was pretty much housebound due to rheumatoid arthritis. Also living there was mother’s other sister, my Aunt Alberta. At various times, both of my aunts would guide at the Baha’i house of worship, down in Wilmette, about an hour’s drive south of Waukegan. So, as my interest in the Faith grew, they encouraged me to drive down to visit the House of Worship, oh, and be sure to stop in and talk to the Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the US there because he was an old family friend! That was Mr. Hugh Chance who had been elected to the national assembly several years earlier!
Hugh and Margaret Chance were friends of our family during all my years of growing up in Davenport. Dad, in addition to being a member of the faculty at the Palmer College, was also a member of the International Chiropractic Association which was instrumental in maintaining a good reputation for Chiropractic and defending it in the public arena. Hugh Chance, at that time from Muscatine, Iowa, was the lawyer for the ICA!
As I delved into the teachings of Baha’u’llah, I realized that here was a force that should not, and could not be denied. After two years at college, and participating in various discussions – bull sessions – several things were obvious to me. First, the Baha’i Faith is inclusive, not exclusive! The distinction between the “people of the book” and “infidels” is no more! Baha’u’llah has revealed the essential unity and beautiful harmony in all the religions. You are not going to hell if you haven’t even heard of Jesus Christ! All parts of mankind have been given divine guidance! This concept is called “progressive revelation”. As each religion has been revealed, think of God taking mankind to school, revealing more of our spiritual nature as we have become able to understand it, and revealing new laws to live by suitable to the people to whom it was revealed and suitable for the culture where it was revealed. I had seen and read about all the conflict between religions over the centuries and continuing even today, and knew this was all wrong, but how to resolve it? And here was a clearly explained understanding of the roots of this conflict – roots based in mankind’s misinterpretation of sacred scripture, lust for power and control, and attachment to “the world”! It just made sense!
Second, I learned that God has a plan to bring all of mankind together. This plan includes the elimination of prejudice of all kinds – racial, gender, national, educational, geographical, and others. After all, prejudice divides us, but we are all one family! We must bring that concept to reality in practice! Again, it just makes sense!
Third, I learned that Baha’u’llah brought a new way for us (mankind) to organize ourselves – essentially a blueprint for a new world order – the Baha’i peace plan. This plan for global administration eliminates governance by individuals and places that governance in the hands of bodies of elected individuals with no campaigning and no electioneering! There is no clergy in the Baha’i Faith! We are told to think for ourselves, not blindly follow others! We are told to independently investigate the truth! Boy, did that ever make sense!
And Fourth, I learned how to think about the concept of the Trinity – a concept I had trouble accepting on faith because it did not make sense. Baha’u’llah wrote:
“Know thou of a certainty that the Unseen can in no wise incarnate His Essence and reveal it unto men. He is, and hath ever been, immensely exalted beyond all that can either be recounted or perceived… He Who is everlastingly hidden from the eyes of men can never be known except through His Manifestation, and His Manifestation can adduce no greater proof of the truth of His Mission than the proof of His own Person.”
This, on the other hand, did make sense! Christ was a Manifestation of God, not God incarnate! In my mind this proved the validity of the Christian message and, at the same time, raised my understanding of the exalted station of the Creator beyond anything we have previously imagined!
Realizing these basics about the Baha’i Faith, along with other principles like the equality of men and women, the essential harmony between science and religion, and the fact that mankind is one family, that we are all on a spiritual journey to know and to love God, left me in a place that I was becoming ready to declare my faith in Baha’u’llah. I remember thinking, perhaps somewhat arrogantly, that much of what I had already believed, someone else had written down!
So, what does one do to declare one’s belief in the Baha’i Faith, especially since there is no clergy and all rituals, like baptism, have been eliminated? Well, I was asked by the Waukegan Local Spiritual Assembly to write a letter to the LSA so that they could review it and accept my request for enrollment. This didn’t seem like a major hurdle for me but it was a bit of a surprise and I didn’t really know how to approach it. After all, I had read some of the Writings and books about the Faith, but I also knew that there was so much more to learn! Baha’u’llah had written over 100 volumes Himself! But I knew what I had read was true.
I had been learning to play the oboe through junior high, high school, and college, and was currently playing in both the Iowa State Symphony orchestra and the concert band (one didn’t play an oboe in a marching band!). I very much loved classical music. Then it came to me – you didn’t have to hear a complete symphony to recognize that it was written by a master. I didn’t have to read everything to realize this was written by the Divine hand. Therefore, I declared my belief in Baha’u’llah as the Manifestation of God for this Day, and wrote something like that in my declaration letter. They seemed to accept it well enough!
Within a week or two I was back to Ames, Iowa, for my Junior year in college at Iowa State University!
As an historical footnote regarding the context of my growing up in Davenport, it was only after I had been a Baha’i for a while that I learned more about what had been going on around me and what it meant to my spiritual growth and development. I learned that the first LSA of Davenport was elected in 1955. On it were both my grandmother, Dr Florence A Meyer, and my aunt, Ethel W Meyer. Also elected were Mr. Hugh Chance and Mrs. Margaret Chance. The others, whose names I no longer remember, were often family friends and had been in our house. In 1963, Mr. Chance attended the world conference for the election of the first Universal House of Justice and was himself elected to that body. I know many prayers were said for my spiritual progress!
Dan Himes, September 2022
